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Since the last one made was 15 years ago, you need to be very meticulous in your inspection.
If you know a reputable mechanic who you trust, I would consider getting a professional inspection and a list of things that need attention, with cost estimates.
Mileage is critical. While they will run a long time, there is always a point where the cumulative effects of age and mileage require a restoration instead of a few repairs.
Do you do your own work? If so how competent are you at fixing everything.
If not and you have no trustworthy repair options, then you are looking for a needle in a haystack, which is a fairly low mileage unmodified example with meticulous repair history. You would be a lot better off to pay twice the money up front for the best example you can find, versus one that needs thousands in repairs and maintenance to get it working properly.
Your location is the west coast. I am assuming you would prefer a Federal emissions model, because they get significantly better mileage.
I can go on and on (mechanic here with 60k hours-now retired) but you might also consider an early Toyota Echo without any options like power steering. A manual base model Echo can be had cheap and it is a much lower maintenance car than a VX, and gets close to the mileage.
regards
Mech
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